1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording/reproduction apparatus and also to a recording/reproduction method for recording and reproducing information by using a recording apparatus adapted to store a large volume of data such as a video tape recorder or a video disk recorder.
2. Related Background Art
Video tape recorders (hereinafter to be referred to as VTRs) using as recording medium a magnetic tape that has a large memory capacity and is available at low cost and video disk recorders using as recording medium an optical disk or an HDD are among currently highly popular recording/reproduction apparatus adapted to continuously record/reproduce video/audio data such as a large number of programs over a long period of time. With such recording/reproduction apparatus as VTRs, it is user's sole operation to record the supplied programs sequentially on the recording medium and select the program(s) to be erased in order to secure a required recording area on the recording medium if the recording medium is short of capacity for recording additional program(s) to be recorded.
However, the operation of selecting programs to be erased out of a large number of programs recorded on the recording medium is a rather cumbersome one to the user. Additionally, the recording algorithm is normally very complicated and the file structure of the recorded video/audio data is often fragmental when the programs selected by the user are erased from the recording medium and video/audio data are recorded continuously on recording area secured on the recording medium by erasing the selected programs due to various factors including the discontinuity of the recording area produced when a programs with different durations are recorded on the recording medium and the low search speed of the VTR that arises when the recording medium is made very long or large to provide a large recording capacity.
In view of the above identified circumstances, it is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a recording/reproduction apparatus and a recording/reproduction method adapted to record information on the recording area of a recording medium without intervention of the operator if the recording medium is short of capacity necessary for recording the information to be recorded.